‘Germany experienced a period of political calm, economic development and social progress in the mid-1920’s.’
How far do you agree with this judgement?
Political calm, spd can’t compromise, Hindenburg causing problems, lack of cooperation between parties causing polarisation but no outright revolutions that happened during 1919-24, growing foreign relations lorcano/treaty of berlin
Economic development, result of lorcano meant breathing space from reparations also dawes and young plan and rentenmark – dawes plan borrowed US money lead to increase in capital. Later though fulfilment still causing problems and unemployment pay is causing issues, increase in taxes
Social progress, conservative right unhappy and manifests in literature
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The various treaties signed by Stresemann also helped the economic development in this period. The Dawes gained significant investments from the US and the Young Plan reduced the reparations Germany would have to pay, and set a timescale for how long they would have to pay. This gave the country some ‘breathing space’ to repair and develop its own economy. The young plan, for example, reduced the amount they would have to pay by 1700 million marks than they would in conjunction with the Dawes plan. These plans, alongside the introduction of the rentenmark meant there was an increase in German capital in this period, which can certainly be classed as a period of economic development. Whilst there is definitely evidence of economic development in the mid-1920’s it did also experience financial issues. The increase in unemployment, 15% of the workforce were unemployed by 1929, put a heavy strain on the welfare system of Weimar Germany. The institution for paying unemployment benefits had to borrow money from the Government, 342 million reichsmarks, and the parties could not agree how to find this money. The SPD would increase taxes while the DVP would cut benefits. This can be seen as a backwards move in economic development, as the system did not address the problem of unemployment, but just found more money to pay it, with the decision of how to pay for the unemployment benefits was delayed until 1930. This can be seen as the government almost
The National Governments experienced moderate success in bringing about economic recovery in the years 1931-1939. It would be inaccurate to say that the policies of the governments were the only contributing factor as they alone were not sufficient enough to tackle the harsh economic climate, but for the most part the National Governments were responsible for a moderately successful economic recovery.
In dealing with the economic depression of the 1930s, it is my opinion that the recovery of Britain was mainly due to the stages of rearmament in the run-up to the Second World War. This is not to say, however, that the National Government failed to combat the rises in unemployment, reaching a peak of three million, and the ruined staple industries, they implemented several policies to reboot the economy and lessen the impact on the people.
As a result, lots of people in America became unemployed and poor with no one to help them. However, this started to change with the election of FDR in 1932. FDR created his New Deal, which was a group of multiple policies that he created as an attempt to restore the wealth of America’s economy. A political cartoon of FDR represents how hard he worked to find a solution to the country’s problems (Doc E). If one remedy did not work, he tried another and another until it was effective and created change. These policies tried various different ways to fix the Depression and many of them ended up greatly benefitting FDR’s cause.
The collapsement of the Weimar Republic was due to many social, political and economical issues within. From its birth it faced numerous political problems, for which the causes were many and varied. These problems included political instability, deep divisions within society and economic crisis; problems were constantly appearing for the new government. The Weimar Republic never really had a stable political party, having a whole six different parties between 1924-1928 does not create stability. Many of these parties were also narrowly sectioned, with messed up
Which gave the right for women to vote without discrimination by other people in1920.Also Germany was required to make significant territorial concessions. They were primarily long against the east and west borders.There was some of the many changes in the politics section.If I was a woman I would have been able to vote if I was 18 years old.But sadly I was 17 years old.
From the early to mid 20th century, the U.S. underwent severe economic changes due to the internal problems. A system of laissez faire does not protect the people in the most damaging recession, the Great Depression. A shift from Hoover to FDR, leads to reform in the New Deal. Later in World War II, the U.S. will isolate itself to focus on the internal economy. The changes in the economy reflected back into the world and into domestic policy. Internally, reform and relief will bring back the nation and the focus of internal economy would create global problems. The U.S.’s economic policy shaped the nation as a welfare state from FDR’s New Deal and proved to be a world power from the causes and post war effects of World War II .
Third, the false Golden Age of economic prosperity created by the Dawes (1924) and Young (1929) Plans and resulting loans from the US Government the during the 1920s had come to a close as the Great Depression hit, and unemployment rose to over 6 million in Germany. Yet, the Weimar Government has survived the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, and therefore it is easy to over-estimate to impact of the Great Depression on the failure of democracy. The economic situation did help to draw more voters towards the fringe parties, and create an atmosphere more willing to foster extremist views as the Weimar Government was seen as weak and unable to cope with Germany’s problems. Thus, the first major factor attributing to the downfall of democracy in Germany was the preceding failure of the Weimar Government politically, structurally, and economically to take a firm hold over Germany.
Keeping a country’s economic status is a great responsibility that its government has. In America during the 1930’s, the Great Depression spreads its economic disease to Americans, and as a result, many citizens become jobless and homeless. While Americans are under economic depression, little has been done by the government to ameliorate the situation. However, President FDR is the MVP during the Great Depression as he brings economic prosperity and well-being to America by reforming economic relations, improving business matters, and comforting American citizens.
Therefore there was a decline in extremist parties such as the Communists and the National Socialists because many Germans didn’t want an extreme change and liked Germany as it was. This was a turning point for Germany because it seemed that the extremist parties would not be capable of getting seats in the parliament. Also, Stresemann convinced the public that a democratic government would solve any problems quickly- and many believed him. The popularity of the Social Democrats increased and they had the majority of the seats in the parliament (153). This was a turning point for Germany because people started to believe that this new democratic government would remain stable and prosperous for the years to come. The Dawes Plan allowed this to happen because it gave the Republic the money it needed to invest in the economy for the people.
In addition to the damaging consequences of the First World War with the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, certain features of Germany caused the state to be susceptible to the influence of this dangerous ideology. Along with the damage to the national ego as a result of the First World War, Germany had co-existing and conflicting highly modern strands of development forced to integrate with powerful remnants of archaic values and social structures, and had a deeply fractured parliamentary political system, and the weaknesses of this system reflected the social and political differences within the population. This shame and failure after World War I was superimposed onto a modern country which once had an advanced economy, a sophisticated state
The Weimar republic from 1919 to 1929 had many successes and failures, starting in chaos and ending in relative stability. However, due to individual perspective these successes and failures were often viewed as both successes and failures- not either. Class, political leanings and other moralistic beliefs, primarily influenced the individual's perspectives. Overall, due to the relative stability, (the aim of any government) primarily achieved by Streseman's influence, the successes outweighed the failures by 1929.
Prior to the Great Depression, Germany was already in a poor economic and political state. More than 6 million Germans were out of work. Germany also had to pay massive reparations for supposedly being solely responsible for all the destruction that WWI caused, and the government was unstable, with several parties vying for power. The current government, the Weimar Republic, was losing support and there was no clear successor to be the new government of Germany. How did the Great Depression affect an already gloomy Germany? How did Hitler and the Nazis take advantage of the economic crisis?
On the one hand, the Dawes Plan was a significant turning point because it improved Germany’s economic situation hugely. It is evident that the Dawes Plan improved Germany’s debt because from 1921-24 the GDP in debt decreased by 150% from the original 305%. This shows the Dawes Plan was a significant turning point because it created an instant effect on Germany’s economy as soon as it was put into action in 1924. Loans financed by the US were distributed to businesses as well as other establishments which led to a big pick up in all businesses. In 1928 Gilbert Parker commented on the pick up of German businesses: ‘..business conditions appear to have righted themselves on a relatively high level of activity’ showing that by this time, Germany’s industries and workforce were at a similar level
However, Ludendorff’s plan backfired when Wilson’s Points insisted that Germany lay down all arms and dissolved its army to no more than 100,000 troops, as well as all parties responsible resign (Peukert, 1987; 46). If Wilson’s constitutional reforms were to be implemented a democratic parliament could have been formed (Peukert, 1987; 24). Obviously Germany was reluctant, at first, to accept all of the responsibility of the war. To add to the attempt of keeping Germany a War state and its reluctant surrender, Keiser Wilhelm II ordered a last attempt by the German Naval Fleet to attack. This created a mutiny in Wilhelmshaven on October 28, 1918 and a sailor’s resurrection in Kiel on November 3rd and 4th (Peukert, 1987; 27). The peaceful revolutionary movement has begun in Germany and the citizens began expressing they wanted a new government. During the revolution the Weimar Republic was forming and it seemed to be doing so with little compromise from polar parties. Somehow, the Weimar Constitution was written and the new government began to practice democracy. Most of Germany, by now, wants to be a viable part of the world and achieve a better standard of living, the newly formed Weimar Republic and fragile economy will be tested with the Versailles Treaty.
Labour welfare between 1920 and 1939 in Germany was a result of an accumulation of labour problems (unskilled labour, female labour, low pay, poor training and limited social advantage) that started with the